Inspiration

Wow, what a day.  I am fortunate to live in a beautiful city that is host to a wonderful organized marathon.  It was the 10th Anniversary for the QCM.  Runner come for all over to run here as we are one of the flattest Boston qualifiers. 

My bff and her husband came down for the weekend to run it.  It was my bff's first ever half marathon and her husbands fifth.  I have never participated (even as a spectator) in any official marathon event.  I have been in fun runs and 10K runs but this was the first big one.  All I can say is WOW.  I packed up the three little girls (two of theirs and one of mine) to go see them cross the finish line.  It was amazing to see the runners cross the finish line and it felt soooo good even cheering them on, giving them some encouragement to keep going.  It was so inspirational and I think just what I needed to give me that push to keep up my training and not to miss a run when it isn't the perfect conditions. 

Just before my bff's husband crossed a girl actually passed out about 10 feet from crossing.  It was horrible.  I am not sure what was going on but she had medical staff around her so I was sure that I couldn't be of help. He crossed the finish line at just over the 2 hour mark, not his personal best but pretty good. 

As he was kinda worried about his wife, I decided to go find her and cheer her on.  I left his kids with him and took mine (she didn't want me to leave without her).  We walked about 1 kilometer before I saw her.  We cheered her on and ran with her for about 300 meters before my daughter couldn't run any longer.  It was awesome. 

Both of them were hurting cases but I am so proud of them.  It is hard to run 13.1 miles.  I am sufficiently scared - that's going to be me in 5 weeks. 

After both of them were done I ran into a few other friends who ran.  Some stories were heartbreaking, others were inspirational, some were both. 

The winner of the QCM is a local running hero.  He has his own running group, the Jeleta Pacers.  It was Ted Jeleta's first time running the QCM and he came in at 2:49.  Amazing.  (Plus me bff was super pumped cause she came in before he did, something she didn't think would happen.)

If you get  a chance, go out and cheer on a local race even if you don't know anyone in it.  It will give the inspiration to keep moving on your next run.